Great Lakes Star Gaze - 2003 - First Annual

This month marked a new era for Michigan: the return
of its annual statewide star party. Not since SMURFS folded have all
Michigan amateurs had an event they could truly call their own. Then
just last year (thanks in part to some persistent loudmouths on the Michigan
Astronomy Yahoo Group) Sunset Astronomical Society then President Joe
Bruessow decided enough was enough and it was time to bring back the statewide
star party. In true form, other members of the SAS rallied around and
helped make it a possibility.

Friday, the 26th, saw that possibility become
reality.

Joe and Roland at the registration booth

I reached the River Valley RV Park
outside of Gladwin around 1:30pm Friday afternoon, setup camp and soon spotted
a pair of compatriots heading towards me. Together, my camping buddy
(Roland) and I made our way up to the observing field to grab a spot and
register. We were immediately greeted at the registration tent by the
ever present Joe Bruessow and the efficient Linda Hancock, who got us registered,
sold us tee shirts and managed to pry yet another 5 dollars out of my pocket
for the raffle.

Shortly after this Roland and I met with Dave and gave his
new 13" T-
scope a good looking over. Man - What a nice little scope – little
being the operative word! Lightweight and user friendly, one of my
regrets on this weekend was that I didn't get a chance to look through it
after dark.

Having been warned by Jeff and Clay that chili would be served
promptly at 5pm, and that it was strictly first come first serve (and being
well aware
that Clay's culinary skills are something of a legend at astrogatherings)
Roland and I hurried down the hill to some of the best chili (and soup)
that I've had in a long time.

Some of us feasting on - Clay's Northen Michigan Gourmet Chilli

At 6:30, we
met in the enclosed building that was to serve as meeting hall, and Joe Officially
welcomed us to the 1st Annual Great Lakes StarGaze. Clayton Kessler
gave a wonderful talk on film imaging, and I had a tough time following him
but I gave it the old college try with an exposition of visual challenge
objects for the evening. Due to the rain pounding down, both Clay and
myself let our talks go a bit longer than they otherwise would, and shortly
before 10 we all retired back to our respective campsites, to sleep and dream
of clear skies.

Keeping an eye on the weather through the night, I awoke
at 3am and noticed the sky had cleared – after waking Roland up, he
and I made the long walk up the hill to the observing site, unpacked our
equipment and began
to setup. Both Saturn and M42 were spectacular through the TV102/Denk
II/30mm Ultimas. Unfortunately that was all I had time to view as clouds
quickly closed in and we decided to pack it in for the night.

Saturday saw
rain off and on during the day.

Breakfast was a stack of pancakes
and sausage served up warm (and inexpensively) by the food wagon – Incidentally,
they did a great job of providing good food at a reasonable price, and I
hope they make it back next year. We
ate and talked and before we knew it the clock read 11am. Time for
the swap meet to begin, and astronomers went into their feeding frenzy. I
divested myself of a 9mm synta ultrawide (thanks Bob – hope you are
enjoying it!) and a laminated desk edition of Sky Atlas 2000 in order to
acquire a pair of Oberwerk 8x56 binoculars. John from Rider's Hobby
Shop in Livonia was there and he brought (among other things) one of the
new Orion ED 80mm scopes with him. The scope was a little larger than
the TV76 he had for sale, but quite a bit lighter. I prevailed upon
him to set the scope up outside so we could take a quick peek. A few
minutes later, we had the little thing sitting on a tripod, pointing at the
bumper of a Chevy a couple of hundred yards away. There was very little
in focus chromatic aberration, and the image at 100x was surprisingly sharp
and clear. How did this little guy perform under the stars? Read
on….

Next to where we had the 80ED setup, Gary
had his TV76 with a Coronado Ha filter setup – unfortunately, before
I had a chance to peak, the sun disappeared behind the clouds – I still
haven't had a chance to look at the sun in Ha – and my pocketbook suspects
that's probably a good thing.

Roland and I headed into Clair to tend to some errands, and
stopped at a tiny flyspeck restaurant for lunch. (You can always tell these
places
by
their unassuming décor and the fact they are packed with locals.)
The booth we were in was leaning about 10 degrees off level but that didn't
stop Roland or I from enjoying one of the best double cheeseburgers either
of us had eaten in a while. Unfortunately I don't remember the name,
but I'm pretty sure I can find it again, and you can bet I'll be certain
to try next year.

We headed back to the meeting hall and found we had evidently
just missed an impromptu talk by John on astro software (drat!), and while
Roland attended
Kevin and Kristen's "How to Build a Dob in an Hour" Dale and I
walked back to camp to talk equipment and observing for a while. Roland
joined us shortly and we talked till our stomach's started to growl. Heading
down to the food stand, I had an infamous "Walking Taco" for dinner
and then we walked in on what was unfortunately the tail end of Jeff's talk
on CCD imaging. What little I saw looked very good. Dick was
up next with an excellent talk on the Apollo landing sites. I'm an
Apollo buff, but Dick showed pictures that I've never seen before – a
wonderful presentation. Dale then went on to seemingly do the impossible. He
made the topic of double stars an interesting one. I've never been
much of a double observer, but Dale is doing something most of the rest of
us aren't – he's contributing to real science with his observations,
and I find that extremely worthwhile. Kudo's Dale!

Great speakers kept us entertainted even when the rains poured down.

And then
it was the time we had all been waiting for, and the packed meeting hall
warmed with the bodies of 70 some astronomers. Time for the door prizes! Prizes
were plentiful and ranged from college astronomy textbooks, Astronomy magazine
subscriptions, a Discovery dobsonian, a Celestron Nexstar 80, Meade 8.8 ultrawide,
a Denkmier binoviewer and more. Somehow the astrophotography guys took
the big visual accessories - Clay won an anniversary gift in the form of
the Denkmeier Standard and Jeff took home the 8.8 ultrawide! Both of
which were greatly appreciated by their new owners (astrophotography guys
or not), I might add. And then it was time for the raffle drawing: an 8" Hardin
Optical dob – the winner was a very young girl whose smile was nearly
as large as the scope itself. A neat trick since she was several inches
shorter. Seeing this young girl win was far better than winning it
myself could ever have been, as everyone agreed. Next year, I suspect
we will have some prizes earmarked specifically for children.

In the meantime,
the sky had cleared and we all rushed up the hill to the observing field
to set up and get started. I had my TV102 and Denkmeier
unit out for about an hour and was constantly surrounded by a crowd of interested
onlookers – at one point Joe walked over to find out why the smallest
scope on the field had the biggest group around it. General consensus
seemed to be that binoviewing may very well be the natural evolution of visual
astronomy. It certainly made for some of the more crowd pleasing experiences
that evening.

Kevin's beautiful homemade dob

While the others observed through my scope,
Joe, myself and a small crowd of folks started counting naked eye stars in
M45. Right about then, Jeff stopped by with his new toy (Celestron
25x100 binoculars) and asked if I wanted to take a glimpse. Ever try
handholding 4" binos?? I'll tell you that I saw some strange and
interesting things, and further that it's not an experience I care to repeat. I
think Jeff actually strained his shoulder later that night on those beasts. I
hope he intends to mount them on a tripod for the next attempt. If
not, I'm certainly not going to engage him in arm wrestling contests any
time in the near future.

After this, I packed up the scope and began visiting
others while bringing the binoviewer along. First stop (and one that
kept me busy for a while) was John's 18" Obsession. (What a great
scope!) A small
crowd gathered around while we used the binoviewer and John gave us a wonderful
show including; M13, M57, M27, NGC 891, and the Veil. The 18",
binoviewer, a pair of 30mm ultimas and an OIII filter all combined to give
me one of the best views of the Veil that I've ever had. But even so,
it was still more fun to watch the reactions of people who had never used
a binoviewer before. They were all about the same – shock and
awe as they experienced a new way of looking at the universe. Paul
in particular seemed extremely impressed – so much so, I can't help
but wonder if his Denk II's are en route to his house already.

Roland excused
himself at this point and went back to the camper to grab some zzzz's while
I walked back to the main field to visit with more friends.

Bob's
Discovery Dob and observing chair

Removing the OCS from the binoviewer
and plopping it in Dale's SCT resulted in wave after wave of clouds coming
in. The gathered group would suggest
a target and by the time Dale would manage to get the 12" LX200 slewed
to it, it would be clouded over. It was almost like we were (with the
universes help) yanking Dales chain on a cosmic level. Finally, the
chuckles died down, the skies cleared and Dale was able to acquire a target. His
initial reaction was pure silence. He was so quiet I quite literally
wondered if the was ok for a minute. Just when I was about to nudge
him, he looked up, wiped his eyes and quietly cursed about how much money
I just cost him.

Deciding to leave him alone with his misery for a
while, I wandered off to take a peek through the Orion ED, and found John
with it and the TV76 pointed
toward Mars. While seeing admittedly wasn't the best, the views were
surprisingly similar. Clay confided to me that when he looked
through it at Vega earlier in the evening there was very little false color,
and that the 80 and 76 mm provided amazingly similar in focus views. I
think I've found my travel scope.
As I was wandering back to Dale the clouds began to roll in and I decided
it was time for me to hit the hay. With thoughts of clear skies and
all the scopes viewing through and people I missed chatting with this evening,
sleep came slowly but it did finally come.

Sunday morning arrived, and it
was time to pack up, brake camp, say our goodbyes and head home to our respective
families.
I've only mentioned a tiny fraction of the friends who were there, and of
the experiences we had. I hope I've gotten the names right – please
forgive me if I've missed one or two. There were amateurs there from
all over Michigan – with different styles and tastes, but there was
one thing we all agreed on – even if it had rained all evening, both
evenings, we still would have had a wonderful time.

Joe Bruessow and crew,
I'd like to take a moment to thank you on behalf of the amateurs of Michigan. It
was an excellent experience! When
can I register for next year's event?